Signs, labels, tags and similar identifying indicia of the type which are customarily applied to a surface with pressure sensitive adhesive are being used in increasing numbers by government, industry and private enterprise. Every year, or more frequently, state and local governments issue millions of pressure sensitive labels and tags which are required to be applied to automobiles, boats and other vehicles to evidence payment of registration fees, taxes and the like. The label or tag or "sticker" as it is more commonly known must be replaced annually or every time the tax or fee is paid. In some situations, for example in states which allow but heavily regulate gambling, stickers showing the payment of the requisite monthly taxes or fees must be prominantly displayed on devices like slot machines. Other pressure sensitive signs or labels are increasingly being used to impart a wide variety of information from the name of the manufacturer of a product, to instructions for product use, or to the fact that a motor vehicle or other item has been inspected or approved and to whatever message the buyer desires to put on his or her car bumper. The widespread use of such pressure sensitive labels, signs and tags, primarily because of their low cost, is expected to increase to an even greater extent.
The application of pressure-sensitive indicia is generally accomplished with ease although removal from the carrier or backing paper can pose problems. However, when the time comes to remove last year's vehicle registration sticker or last month's weighing scale approval tag or the unwanted bumper sticker, removal is generally only accomplished with great difficulty. Removal of these stickers with the fingers is virtually impossible. Although a razor blade, knife or scraper will usually remove the old sticker, removal in this manner is more often than not accompanied by damage to the surface from which the sticker is being removed, the remover, or both. Moreover, if removal has been attempted with the fingernails, the remover will be left with broken or split fingernails as well as a feeling of extreme frustration. In addition, it is highly unlikely that a sticker removed in this way would ever be able to be reused, if such was desired or required. Since there are instances in which the transfer of the information represented by a tag, label, sign or other sticker from one surface to another is necessary, the provision of means which would facilitate removal of the sign for reuse would be highly desirable.
The pressure sensitive adhesive signs, labels and tags disclosed in the prior art are not intended to be easily removed and then reused. Moreover, those prior art signs including means to facilitate their removal from the surface to which they have been applied employ tabs or other protuberances that extend beyond the perimeter of the sign. While these structures do assist in sign removal, the excess material required to produce such tabs results in inefficiencies, wasted material and, hence, increased cost in the production of signs including them. Moreover, these tabs or projections are susceptible of tearing, particularly on a sign intended for repeated reuse.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,421,239 to Smith discloses a circular marker or tag including an adhesive-free tab which extends outwardly of the main body of the tag to assist in removing the tag from its backing paper. The adhesive-free tab area results from the pattern of adhesive application to the back of a sheet containing a plurality of such tags. Not only do the tags disclosed in the Smith reference suffer from the aforementioned disadvantages, but they are also clearly intended only for one-time use and are not intended to be removable or reusable once they have been applied.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,914,483 to Stipek discloses a multiple part label for use on a package or container including inner removable label portions which may be provided with one or more adhesive-free edges to assist in the removal of the inner label from its backing sheet. However, there is no suggestion that once the Stipek label has been removed from its backing sheet and applied to the surface of a package or container that the adhesive-free area has any further utility, particularly since the label described in this reference is not contemplated to be removed and reused. There is, moreover, no disclosure in the Stipek patent of specifically how the adhesive-free area of the label is created.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,013,299 to Byrne and 4,201,403 to Turner disclose, respectively, seals and tabs having adhesive-free portions. Neither of these devices, however, is intended to employ the adhesive-free portions disclosed therein to facilitate removal of the device from the surface to which it has been applied so that it may be reapplied to another surface and reused, if desired.
A sticker contemplated for temporary application is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,055,249 to Kojima. This sticker, however, is formed of a complex, multi-layer arrangement of sticking sheets specially cut to form lugs or tabs which project beyond the body of the sticker to provide a structure which can be grasped with the fingers to remove the sticker. Additionally, a series of several manufacturing steps is required to form this multilayer arrangement. There is, moreover, no suggestion that the potentially costly sticker unit described in this reference is intended to be reused once it has been removed from the surface to which it has been applied.
Consequently, the prior art has failed to disclose a sign, label, tag or the like which is rendered efficiently and effectively removable and potentially reusable by the provision of an integral, self-contained adhesive-free area located completely within the perimeter of the sign or a simple, inexpensive method for producing a readily removable and reusable sign, label, tag or sticker containing such an adhesive-free area.